tricycleracer:It's pretty awesome that this huge plane was able to land, and then take-off, from a 3,400 foot runway.

It's got thrust reversers, and after a trans-atlantic flight, he was nowhere near its Maximum Takeoff Weight, so it's not really an incredible feat of aviation.I've personally watched an entire squadron of C-17's land, turn around, and take off from this airfield. It's impressive, but not miraculous.

rolladuck:tricycleracer: It's pretty awesome that this huge plane was able to land, and then take-off, from a 3,400 foot runway.

It's got thrust reversers, and after a trans-atlantic flight, he was nowhere near its Maximum Takeoff Weight, so it's not really an incredible feat of aviation.I've personally watched an entire squadron of C-17's land, turn around, and take off from this airfield. It's impressive, but not miraculous.

Seems unlikely to me that in broad daylight the pilots would have failed to notice they were landing at a small airport with a short runway. How much do you want to be that the pilot did it on a dare, to show off? Hahahaha....

MythDragon:It wasn't until the cargo jet was halfway down the runway at Peter O. Knight Airport, a small flight center on Davis Islands, that the crew realized it had missed the intended landing site

Namely when they realized the runway was about a half mile shorter than it used to be.

About halfway down the runway, the crew realized it was at the wrong airport and the co-pilot applied "maximum effort braking" on the smaller runway.

Or in military terms "Holy shiat, we're all about to die, lock them biatches up"

You'd think if they realized they were at the wrong airport, and hadn't begun braking yet, they'd just firewall the throttle and take back off again.

It takes a while to reconfigure for takeoff. In preparation for a full-stop landing, you'd likely have selected full flaps, armed the autospoilers, maybe even selected autobraking. In a touch-and-go you're not quite full-stop configured, and you're thinking ahead for the reconfigure, carefully controlling your speed, etc. A touch-and-go eats a lot more runway than one would think.

By the time the pilot realized his mistake, there would have not been enough time to reconfigure for a touch-and-go. Flaps take time to retract, airspeed is already bled far below what is normal for a touch-and-go, spoilers are armed to deploy (or already deployed), and engines take time to spool up.

It would have been a shiat-pile of time-eating panic just getting the aircraft ready to takeoff again and even if they had gotten through the steps to do so, the aircraft would have eaten up the remainder of the runway - way before it began to accelerate to takeoff speed. The decision to go flying again would have needed to be made well before it touched down

If they'd opted to do so, it would have likely stalled and ended up in the drink.

If you ever got to see Afghanistan, just substitute newer vehicles, add a couple of taller buildings, and the people speak Spanish instead of Pashtun, and you've got Nevada. Oh, and the gambling is legal and the ladies only wear what clothes they want to.The desert north of town is almost physically identical to RC-East, and the Vegas area, strangely enough, bares a striking resemblance to provinces around Mazar-i-Sharif in the north.

rolladuck:Charlie Freak: Keno, eh? I would have loved to have seen Nevada...

If you ever got to see Afghanistan, just substitute newer vehicles, add a couple of taller buildings, and the people speak Spanish instead of Pashtun, and you've got Nevada. Oh, and the gambling is legal and the ladies only wear what clothes they want to.The desert north of town is almost physically identical to RC-East, and the Vegas area, strangely enough, bares a striking resemblance to provinces around Mazar-i-Sharif in the north.

I've been to the eastern border of Area 51, have pics of the "no photography sign," t-shirt. That was damn near 20 years ago.

No, but it is a fairly expensive tool that contains a goodly amount of private data and is my primary means of contacting other people (especially if I'm not at home). I'd be pretty aggravated to lose mine.

rolladuck:tricycleracer: It's pretty awesome that this huge plane was able to land, and then take-off, from a 3,400 foot runway.

It's got thrust reversers, and after a trans-atlantic flight, he was nowhere near its Maximum Takeoff Weight, so it's not really an incredible feat of aviation.I've personally watched an entire squadron of C-17's land, turn around, and take off from this airfield. It's impressive, but not miraculous.

FTFA: The two were acting at reduced cognitive capacity, according to the report, with the pilot at 79 percent effectiveness and the co-pilot at 89 percent. The report says 70 percent effectiveness is the same level of impairment induced by a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent.

This explains it. The pilot and copilot were both at least 2-3 shots shy of being flight-ready.